Document: Oil Ministry orders ban on Kurdish language for 'posing threat' to Arabic

The General Inspector at the Iraqi Oil Ministry vows to take legal action against any employee who violates the rule.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iraqi Oil Ministry has ordered a ban on the use of Kurdish terms in official documents, vowing to take legal action against employees who violate the decision.

In an official document issued on Monday, Hamdan Uwaij Rashid, the General Inspector at the Iraqi Oil Ministry, ordered the North Gas Company (NGC) to stop using Kurdish words in its official documents as it “poses a threat” to the Arabic language.

“There are Kurdish terms used in most of the documents the NGC submits which is against the motion issued in 1968 to maintain the safety of the Arabic language,” Rashid wrote.

According to the document, the Iraqi Secretariat of the Council of Ministers had circulated motion number 64 to all government institutions on Aug. 17, 2017.

A document issued by the General Inspector at the Iraqi Oil Ministry.
A document issued by the General Inspector at the Iraqi Oil Ministry.

Rashid called on the NGC to abide by the law, vowing to take legal action against any employee who violates the rule.

According to the Iraqi Constitution Article Four. "The Arabic Language and the Kurdish language are the two official languages in Iraq."

Iraqi authorities previously fired an NGC director in Kirkuk for printing a photo of the ousted Kurdish governor, Najmaldin Karim, on the company’s 2018 calendars.

Following the Kurdistan Region’s historic referendum last September, Iraqi troops and Iran-backed militias seized control of Kirkuk on Oct. 16. Peshmerga forces had protected the province since 2014 when the so-called Islamic State attacked.

Since then, dozens of Kurdish officials have been removed from their posts and replaced with Arabs and Turkmen while the Kurdish language has also been restricted.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany